


Catching The Sun

by allrounderinsane



Category: Cricket RPF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 12:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1226764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allrounderinsane/pseuds/allrounderinsane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alastair Cook is on a mission to prove that's he's really the legend everybody, deep down, knows he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catching The Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> This story is dedicated to the one and only Chloe (aka alastairncook). Thanks for being so awesome!

When Alastair Cook walked out onto the picturesque cricket ground in Aberdeen dressed in full England kit for the coin toss prior to the One Day International match against Scotland, he was in reasonably good spirits. A lot had happened in his life since he had last set foot on an international cricket ground in order to play a match.

His baby daughter, Chloe Elizabeth Cook, had been welcomed to the world exactly two months prior. Alastair had seen plenty of sheep since his return from Australia and had introduced Chloe to all of them. He didn’t mind his teammates’ new nickname for him of ‘Mary’ (in fact, some of them were surprised that this wasn’t his daughter’s name), although he tried to persuade them against using the moniker to refer to him.

In the middle of the ground, Alastair was joined by the captain of Scotland and the match referee.

“There’s the coin, Gordon,” the match referee, Jeff Crowe, informed Gordon Drummond, the captain of Scotland, politely as he handed him a coin.

He nodded his head and murmured his thanks.

“Well, are we ready to get this underway?” Alastair queried.

Both Gordon and Jeff nodded simultaneously. Gordon tossed the coin up into the slightly chilly May air.

“Heads!” Alastair called as the metallic object spun through the air towards the pitch.

“Heads is the call!” Jeff declared.                                     

Alastair felt his heart rate quicken as Jeff strolled over to observe the coin after it hit the ground.

“Heads, it is,” Jeff announced.

Alastair immediately felt excited, like he did when he would awake on a cricket match day as a child. He and Gordon shook hands and beamed at one another in a reflex action.

“Play well, sir,” Gordon said.

“Yes, thank you, you too,” Alastair replied.

He turned to Jeff.

“We’ll have a bat, thanks,” Alastair stated immediately with a slight smile.

It wasn’t long afterwards that all three men were heading off the ground in preparation for the match. Alastair quickly walked back to the dressing room and dressed himself appropriately to open the innings with Ian Bell. Leaning on his bat while waiting to stroll to the wicket, he thought over his intentions and tactics for his upcoming innings.

Ian walked up beside him, but did not say a word. They watched in silence as the Scottish team made their way out onto the edge of the field and formed a team huddle. As they broke away from one another and swiftly began heading to their fielding positions, Alastair stood up straight and turned to Ian.

“Let’s roll,” he muttered confidently and punched gloves with Ian.

They strutted out onto the pitch, attempting to assert their dominance with their body language. Alastair, who was facing first, headed to the striker’s end and swiftly marked his guard. He looked down the pitch while doing some stretches, then glanced around the field, observing the gaps. The opening bowler was at the top of his mark.

Alastair breathed as the bowler came charging in, new white ball in hand. The first ball was short-pitched, high enough that it easily could have been called a wide in a Twenty20 match. If Alastair had been in a conservative mood, he would have simply ducked under it. However, he instead decided to play a hook shot.

As soon as the ball smacked off his bat, making a glorious sound, Alastair put his head down and ran hard between the wickets. When he reached the other end of the pitch, he looked up and noticed the crowd’s applause and the umpire’s arms raised above his head. Alastair had hit the first ball of the match for six.

The swiftly-accumulating Scottish crowd politely applauded. He couldn’t help but smile to himself as Ian Bell marked his guard. They say that, in cricket, sometimes it’s just your day and Alastair definitely felt like it was indeed his day. The innings continued in an almost dream-like state. The runs were quickly accumulated and neither Alastair nor Ian were dismissed.

When they brought up their century partnership by running a quick two on the last ball of the over, they shook hands then punched gloves in the middle of the wicket.

“I’m feeling good about today,” Alastair admitted, sporting a grin.

Ian smiled for a brief moment.

“Just don’t jinx it, Chef,” he warned the captain.

Usually, a comment just as that would have slightly unsettled Alastair, but as he headed back to the striker’s end, he took it all in his stride. Alastair marked his guard once more and prepared to face the bowler. He received a good delivery, full and swinging, but he pushed it just far enough past mid-off in order to run through for the single.

With that run, Alastair brought up his half-century off forty-nine balls. He raised his bat to the light applause of the crowd and made sure that he smiled towards where Alice and Chloe were seated in the grandstand. Alastair was glad that the crowd were modest in their clapping, as, even from a distance, he could notice that his infant daughter was asleep.

Alastair and Ian shook hands once more and they did so again when Ian brought up his own half-century shortly afterwards. Their marvelous partnership eventually ended when Ian was bowled for 56. Usually, Alastair would have been dismayed by the dismissal of his partner, but, even though he recognised it was not ideal, it was excited by the prospect of hoping building a partnership with Joe Root.

The blonde-haired batsman got off the mark off the first ball he faced, leaving Alastair the remaining four deliveries from the off-spinner who was bowling. Admittedly, he was aided by a series of full tosses and half-trackers, but for the rest of that over, Alastair gave the crowd plenty of catching practice, bludgeoning four sixes in as many balls.

He raised his own score from 57 to 81. Alastair wasn’t always a player who smashed sixes – especially in one-dayers – but he was certainly capable of it. He was now only nineteen runs away from a century and he began to get nervous. Joe was beaming from the non-striker’s end as he watched his captain rack up the runs.

Alastair was thankful that Joe was willing to just run quick singles to get him back on strike. It only took five more balls for him to reach 99 with a single off the first ball of an over. Gordon, captaining Scotland, moved all of his fielders into the circle without much ceremony. Suddenly, Joe, who had been manipulating the field with so much freedom earlier, couldn’t get off strike.

For the last ball of that over, all of the fielders moved back towards the boundary. Alastair and Joe nodded to one another, the silent message being that they would run as hard as they could for two if the ball passed the thirty-yard circle. Thankfully, the bowler bowled what was perhaps the best ball of the innings, narrowly missing the outside edge of Joe’s bat.

Alastair chuckled slightly as the two batsman switched ends. Another international century was now just one run away. Alastair smiled upon realising that the off-spinner he had previously terrorised was going to be bowling. He didn’t want to be judgmental, but his nervous mind couldn’t help but think that, if he were captain, he wouldn’t have put this particular bowler onto bowl.

Unlike six months ago, there was no struggle for Alastair this time. He smashed a long-hop to the boundary and raised his arms in triumph. Alastair removed his helmet and engaged in a tight hug with Joe. When the two batsman broke away from one another, he pointed his bat towards Alice and Chloe. The baby was now awake and was waving her arms about. From a distance, Alastair thought it looked like she was clapping.

He beamed and headed back to mark his guard once more. Alastair knew that the job was not yet over.


End file.
